There is no such person who would not know about this plane and would not be enthusiastic about his achievements. In this article we will tell a little about its history, device, characteristics and application. Kukuruznik (An-2 aircraft) is a biplane with a brace wing, a light transport aircraft. “Foal”, “Foal”, Colt are its names according to the codification of NATO. In the history of world aviation, the An-24 is the largest single-engine biplane. This changed only after the appearance of its modification - An-3. The aircraft has one Shvetsov engine with a capacity of one thousand horsepower. Take-off weight is 5250 kilograms.
A bit of history
The idea of creating this machine was put forward in 1940 by O.K. Antonov. What was needed was a multi-purpose light aircraft with a carrying capacity of one to one and a half tons for use in agriculture, military transport aviation, and inaccessible areas of the USSR, capable of taking off without problems from small platforms. Soon the war began, which is why the relevance of creating such an agricultural machine has faded into the background. But with the liberation of the territory and the restoration of the national economy and economy, the issue again became one of the priority ones. The Kukuruznik (An-2 aircraft) was developed at Antonov's OKB-153, and the first flight on it was carried out in 1947, on August 31, by P. N. Volodin, a test pilot. He received his popular name from Po-2.
Along with other achievements and records, the An-2 is the only aircraft in the world that has been produced for more than 60 years. This is currently being done in China. In the Soviet Union itself, mass production was completed in 1960, with more than 5,000 biplanes built. After which the release continued under license in Poland and China. In the first - 12,000 cars from 1957 to 1992, in the second - 950 for the same time. 10 440 was delivered to the USSR, then to the CIS. Our long-lived maize - an airplane whose photo you see - has been exported to 26 countries.
Operation An-2
This aircraft was operated in the Soviet Union in many directions. Very wide - on short-haul airlines with the goal of transporting goods and passengers. Also, the "maize" (An-2 aircraft) carried out, as it was planned, various national economic tasks, including chemical aerial work. He took the baton at Po-2 for sowing fields with corn.
Being very easy to operate, the biplane is suitable for use from small unprepared sites with unpaved surfaces, as it has low mileage and take-off run. An-2 is indispensable in the underdeveloped territories of Central Asia, Siberia, the Far North, where it was used everywhere.
The Ministry of Transport of Russia in 2012 announced the beginning in 2015 of a deep modernization of about 800 units of the aircraft we are considering, in which air navigation equipment and engines will be replaced.
Modifications "corn"
"Corn" - An-2 - has many modifications. Here is some of them:
- An-2M is a single-seat modernized agricultural aircraft.
- An-2PP - fire, civil, with a float chassis.
- An-2SX - civilian agricultural.
- An-2S - sanitary.
- An-2TP - passenger transport.
- An-2T - transport.
- An-2TD - airborne transport.
- An-2F - aircraft for aerial photography. With the usual autopilot and fuselage, a civilian version.
- An-2F - night artillery reconnaissance and photo reconnaissance. Has a glazed tail and two keels. In service - a UBT machine gun or an NS-23 automatic gun. Test pilot Pashkevich completed the first flight in April 1949. Serially not produced.
- An-2 called the “interceptor” in 1960 was made with a searchlight and a dual machine gun turret to intercept enemy reconnaissance balloons.
- An-3 - a plane with a TVD-20 - a turboprop engine.
- An-4 - water, with a float chassis.
- An-6 is an atmospheric probe, a weather scout, having an additional cabin at the base of the keel.
Some interesting facts
The biplane, characterized by longevity, has accumulated a lot of interesting things in its history. Here are some facts:
- The first model of the aircraft, U-2, made its first flight on January 7, 1928. It was created under the leadership of Nikolai Polikarpov.
- In the Soviet Union, pilots were trained on U-2. Thanks to him, the road to heaven was open to thousands of pilots.
- In 1932, six eight-kilogram bombs on special holders could be placed on board the U-2BC, and in the rear cockpit there was an arrow point equipped with a PV-1 machine gun.
- We already wrote how much the take-off biplane weighs, an empty training batch - only 656 kg. The maximum speed of the “maize” is 135-150 km / h; he needs no more than 15 meters for run and take-off.
- In the war of 1941-1945, the Germans were very afraid of the Soviet U-2, called them “sewing machine” and “coffee grinder”. Especially during the night bombing.
- During the war years, women began to be called up, who then became pilots for the biplane. 23 of them awarded the title of Hero.
- At very low altitudes, they were completely invisible to air defense systems. Because of this, they were very difficult to bring down.
- Test pilots from Ukraine on this plane conquered the South Pole.
The “heart” of our plane
In the Soviet Union, the construction of everything new was carried out under the slogan "Higher, farther, faster." The same can be said about such a component of the aircraft as the engine of the “maize”. At that time, there was a general enthusiasm for gas turbine engines, so in the 50s of the last century they began to develop gas turbine engines for the An-2. But then nothing came of this venture. And only ten years later, the TVD-10 was developed. They did this under the guidance of V. Glushenkov in the Omsk ICD. The next option was already for the An-3.
It happened in 1971. And the TV2-117C engine was installed under the cockpit. Then a plane appeared with two TVD-850s, which were located in the bow and rotated the propeller through a common gearbox. In 1979, the gas turbine TVD-20 was created, under which the An-2 was modernized.
Kukuruznik (An-2 aircraft), characteristics
This biplane has the following performance characteristics:
- 5500 kg - take-off maximum weight.
- 3400-3900 kg - the mass of an empty biplane.
- 5250 kg - landing maximum weight.
- 1240 liters - the mass of fuel.
- 155-190 km / h - cruising speed.
- 990 km - range of the flight performed with a load.
- 4.5 km - the ceiling of the flight altitude.
- 12.4 meters - the length of the biplane.
- 5.35 meters - height.
- 8, 425 - the span of the upper wing.
- 5,795 - the scope of the lower wing.
- 71.52 square meters - wing area.
- Two people - the crew.
- 12 - the number of passengers, the modification of the An-2TD can accommodate paratroopers - 10.
Equipment An-2
What can you see if you look at the corn barn today? The airplane, the photo of the latest models confirms this, it is equipped with fairly modern equipment: ARK-9 radio compass, A-037 radio altimeter, GPK-48 gyro-compass, MRP-56P marker receiver, and GIK-1 course combined system.
Communication equipment includes: SPU-7 - intercom, radio stations RS-6102 MV range and R-842 CB range.
Conclusion
Inexplicably, the drawing of the “maize” and the intellectual rights to the aircraft were owned by the Polish company Airbus Military. In May 2014, it became clear that for more than two years the Ukrainian design bureau of Antonov has not provided any documents to the Russian side that could confirm the rights to a biplane. For this reason, it is not possible to develop a new regional airplane based on the Kukuruznik (An-2) aircraft.
After the investigation, it turned out that the rights were sold under the Soviet regime. Therefore, today we have to limit ourselves to modernizing existing models. But there are more than 1,500 of them in Russia at the moment, so the An-2 aviation fleet of various modifications will be restored.